by Meg Xuemei X
I swept a glance over the throne hall—no one else seemed affected.
I was the one and only target.
The scent, irresistible, almost vicious, yet erotic beyond anything filled the room.
One could fight the power of beauty or a seducing Siren’s voice, but how could one resist the scent that was part of air and wind? At the realization, I at once stopped inhaling, but it was already too late.
The flapping of my struggling wings only quickened the flow of the lavish scent in my bloodstream.
My erection grew so huge that I feared my trousers might burst open, which would embarrass me to no end as an immortal. I bit back a groan and drew my left wing to cover my front.
The Princess of Mysth was much nastier than I had thought.
How could she do this? I gritted my teeth. How had she done it?
Obviously, she preyed on me and me alone, yet I, the most formidable angel warrior, next only to the Lord of All Angels, was defenseless against her scent.
I was defenseless for the first time in eons.
Fury rocked my whole body, as did lust.
Chapter 10
PRINCESS ROSE
The high prince froze in the air, wings slowing, before he delivered a blow. His gaze slid back to me, black lightning flashing in his eyes.
Absolutely terrifying, yet he was still the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
I stared back, the killing light in my eyes reflecting on the chakram I held tightly.
Time stopped. The air crackled with a faint electric current. It pulsed once, twice, then struck me.
My back arched.
What was happening?
When time flowed again, something magic—as light as a butterfly’s wings—streamed through me.
A longing I hadn’t known before bloomed in my heart. It was as if I’d just found the sweetest dream I’d once lost, or enchanting music I’d been searching for my entire life.
The lure pulled me toward the angel prince. If I hadn’t known better, I might have begged my sworn enemy to sweep me off my feet, so I could wrap my legs around his waist.
Had the high prince just cast a spell on me? Did this lure come from the ancient power I’d sensed in him?
You’ll pay for this, bastard!
He met my gaze, a mosaic of confusion, hunger, and awe swirling in his eyes. The high prince wasn’t so emotionless after all, though the last glint I saw from him was predatory menace.
I stood my ground, not sure if I should fling my chakram as the lure still tugged me toward him. I pictured myself running into his arms and touching his wings. I wanted to mate with him. I bit my lip and almost drew blood to stop the indecent images. My face flamed in shame, shock, and want.
This must be the prince’s joke of revenge on me.
Where was my inborn shield? It should have fended off his curse. My eyes darted in panic. The High Prince of Angels was even more powerful and malevolent than I’d thought.
Fury burned in me as darkly as lust.
The prince parted his lips—they were so kissable.
Stop!
The high prince cursed too before he soared up. The vast, arched ceiling chimed open at his approach. Sunlight poured in, brightening the angel’s medium-length, dark brown hair. His wings looked even more glorious, as if stardust had fallen on his golden feathers.
The court looked up at their high prince in awe. As humiliating as it was, I was among them thinking that he was the most magnificent being I’d ever seen. He had cast a damned spell on me to make me think so, but I would overcome that.
When I brought my army here, I would have my warriors bomb Atlantis from above.
The ceiling closed after the prince’s disappearance. Before a sense of relief came, a feeling of loss sank in me. Again, this must have been from the prince’s curse.
I prayed for the spell to wear off soon. But what if it wouldn’t? I would have to figure out a way to undo the angel’s curse. I was already in more trouble than I’d thought I could be on my first day in Atlantis.
The king was still fuming as his dark gaze returned to me.
“The prince must have gone mad,” I said.
“He was like the living dead for ages.” The king gave me another measured look, and I tried my best to appear bored at hearing more of the prince. “But you got under his skin. I wonder what it was.”
“I, unlike the others, do not fear him, despite his reputation,” I said coldly. “That almost caused him to behead me.”
“He won’t. I’ll cut off his head if he does,” the king promised.
Seeing the mad glint in King Agro’s eyes, I thought he might have liked the idea. When he had no use for me, he could decapitate me, frame his brother, and take off the prince’s head. One blade, two heads.
What wouldn’t the sadist do?
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I said, “but he’s Your Majesty’s brother.”
“I have hundreds of brothers,” the king said bitterly. “He’s the one I hate the most. I don’t understand why my father insists on having Seth serve in my court. He constantly embarrasses me. Today, he acted bizarrely, unforgivably rude toward my future queen. I won’t blame you if you never forgive him.”
“Your Majesty,” I gave the king a conspiring look, “I believe you can easily set him straight.”
“Setting him straight is on my next-to-do.” The king leered over me. “Enough about that prick. Now, what do you Mysthians say about my reputation?”
Chapter 11
PRINCE SETH
I did the only sensible thing, under the circumstances. I fled.
That was a first—I hadn’t been one to flee from any trouble before.
Instead of staying on course to take out the Mysthian royal guard, I lifted my wings high and shot toward the ceiling.
“How very rude!” I heard my brother spit in his remaining rage, but there was also relief in his accusation. He didn’t have to deal with the dilemma I’d caused. He knew he could never overcome me in a swordfight. My leaving the scene marked his victory.
But at least I had one bit of dignity left: no one seemed to know the real reason I’d taken flight was because I’d been duped by a nineteen-year-old brat.
The court had gotten used to my arrogance and occasional eccentricity anyway. So there was that.
I broke out into the open sky and let out the breath I’d been holding. I was free of her scent, but my cock was still hard as a steel rod.
I roared, my wings pushing the wind until I reached high into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The air was clear, dry. The current rushed violently under my rapidly moving wings. At this altitude, where her scent couldn’t follow, it should be easy to purge the rest of its venom from my body.
I breathed mightily to expel it out from the depths of my lungs, but after a while I realized that her scent had embedded in my bloodstream. Unless I bled myself dry, I wouldn’t get rid of it, and I had no intention of damaging myself like that.
My full erection throbbed in ache, but I didn’t want to jerk off in space. No matter how frustrated and horny I was, I had my pride.
I drifted in the air, brooding over the unimaginable that had happened to me—I, a top predator, had become a prey.
It must be the earth magic in the girl. But shouldn’t she bespell my brother since he was her future bedmate?
Then the mere thought of my brother claiming her rammed unexpected rage into me.
This was maddening. I couldn’t be so possessive of an earthborn female I’d just met, and the female wasn’t even mine to begin with.
There was only one explanation: the fey princess had cursed me with this plight either to spite me, or she had a more sinister plan.
I would get to the bottom of this, and she would deeply regret it. The girl should have checked my reputation before she’d decided to screw me up.
I returned to Earth.
My hard-on remained, and the images of ripping off t
he Mysthian princess’s silky gown in a variety of violent manners kept playing in my head, frustrating me further.
I headed toward my dwelling dome to change to a pair of sweatpants. I would not wear tight leather pants again until I had my erection under control.
The Mysthian princess had driven me out of fashion.
Chapter 12
PRINCESS ROSE
The king’s palace had three main sections: the golden tower and two domes nestled on each side.
North, the Dragonian rebel leader, had advised me to stay in the south wing near the royal private libraries, where the hidden doors lead to the subterranean world beneath the grandeur of Atlantis. He had also handed me the blueprint of the entire city.
I had arranged a secret meeting with North the night before I had set out for Atlantis. I had made an alliance as the future Empress of Mysth with my old enemy in order to defeat our new common enemy.
In my absence, my trusted advisors and generals would work with the Dragonian rebels and execute my plans of overthrowing the angels and driving them back to their own holes somewhere in the universe. My teams had been running their covert operations outside of the emperor’s knowledge.
I had started my own revolution. I wouldn’t be the lamb my father and the angels thought I was. This “lamb” had razor-sharp teeth and killing claws.
Despite my rage that the emperor had forced my hand and betrayed me, I would be a fool not to realize my coming to Atlantis was the only resolution to defeat the angels and preserve my race.
I needed to find the angels’ fatal weakness and wreck their houses from the inside. The Dragonian engineers needed me to collect tech data on the angels’ advanced weapons, which they’d used to conquer galaxies and overthrow the Dragonian’s capital.
No other races were allowed to roam freely in Atlantis, especially in the royal palace. As the angel king’s future queen, I had the privilege no others had. Though I had been under heavy guard at all times, I could always find ways to sneak away.
When I requested residency in the south wing of the dome instead of the formerly assigned suite near the king’s chamber, the king regarded me in amusement. “Is it about the Spring Hall?”
He thought I coveted the most famous bath chamber for my private use but was too sly to admit it.
The Spring Hall was another wonder of the Dragonian’s engineering work.
King Agro indulged me. I’d earned his favor. I’d passed his tests by being foolishly fearless, I’d managed to make his brother almost run me through with his sword, and I’d stood up to his father’s phantom.
He had his own reasons for agreeing to rearrange my accommodation and put me far from his chamber. Before I officially became his queen, he wouldn’t want me to get too alarmed about his nightly life and hear whatever crap came out of his bedroom.
After the servants efficiently made the south wing ready for me, the king gave me a tour.
A natural spring creek flowed in a vast manmade recharge basin in the center of the Spring Hall. The water’s temperature was perfectly warm above room temperature. The only drawback was the high ceiling that would automatically open for an angel of the royal bloodline.
King Agro chuckled as I studied the ceiling. “I’ll never invade your space,” he said. “I don’t need to sneak up on you like a pimpled teenager. You’ll be my queen soon.”
“But your brother—”
The last thing I wanted was for the high prince to spy on me again. He seemed even nastier and more unstable than the angel king. On my first day in Atlantis, he’d tried to terrorize me on the bridge and kill my guard in court. He’d cast a spell on me. I wasn’t sure if it had waned, for I hadn’t seen him since he’d gone nuts and fled.
King Agro bit his fingernail, his look darkening. “Unfortunately, he’s a royal as well, so the ceiling will open at his heat signature. But I dare him violate your privacy while you bathe.”
“What if he does it just to spite us?”
“Then I’ll have a solid reason to behead him.”
The king was really eager to separate his brother’s head from his neck. I would drive a deeper wedge between them, until they had to cut off each other’s head. Whoever’s heads were lopped off was fine with me, as long as they were the angels’.
When a house became so divided, it would collapse on its own.
“Maybe he still has an ounce of good sense and won’t anger you again,” I said dryly.
“I doubt it.” The king shook his head in disgust. “But don’t mind the prick. He won’t be interested in coming to watch you bathe. He lost his sexual appetite toward any female two millennia ago.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Then he’s into males?”
The king snorted. “No, he prefers to stab them.” Then he thought of something and frowned. “However, there’s a technical issue where it concerns my brother.”
I tilted my head. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”
The king blew out a breath in frustration. “My father insisted on having Seth be the head of your security until our wedding night.”
My inner alarm spiked.
Why had the Lord of All Angels taken such an interest in me and insisted on having the high prince as my jailor until I crawled onto the king’s bed, while he had the business of the whole universe in his hands? Why not just use the king’s guards since I was his future bride?
The Lord of All Angels didn’t trust King Agro to keep me in line.
Did they suspect or worry that I would escape? And why did the wedding night sound like a deadline to my fall?
A chill like no other sliced up my spine.
The angel lord must have a terrible agenda that I couldn’t even fathom.
I recalled the cutting, probing look of the Lord of All Angels that had made me shiver inside. It was as if he’d tried to find the exact location of my soul and yank it out.
“Why?” I asked. “I’m marrying you, not your father or brother.”
“I told my lord father the same, subtly,” the king said. “But my father can’t be swayed. He’s a tyrant and he does things no one understands, not even Seth.”
I peeked into the king’s eyes.
He didn’t lie. He didn’t know his father’s hidden design.
I had a hunch that the high prince knew.
The way the high prince had looked at me—when he hadn’t been so hostile—was nearly in pity.
“After we wed, my father and brother will leave us alone. Seth will go away forever. We only need to tolerate him for a couple of months.” King Agro gritted his teeth. “That’s why I haven’t knifed him.”
“Go away? Go where?”
“He’ll leave for the next galaxy, and I hope something nasty out there bites half of his ass off.”
The king left and let me dust myself off from the long journey to Atlantis.
A sense of dread still haunted me.
I needed to find out the Lord of All Angels’ endgame before he did me in. I’d have to try another angle. I would work on the high prince.
If the prince ever came to watch me bathe, I’d let him. I’d lure him into my trap.
But then, the sun would rise from the west. According to the king, Prince Seth hadn’t broken his record of two thousand years of sexual apathy.
He wasn’t interested in male or female, and I was no master in seduction.
I was only a virgin princess from the twilight realm of Mysth.
Chapter 13
PRINCESS ROSE
You’re pale, Princess, my light-eyed lady-in-waiting said telepathically as she combed my hair.
We were in my new chamber in the south wing of the golden tower.
All nine of my companions could speak telepathically with me, which was one of the qualifications for those who had volunteered to accompany me to the enemy’s land. Souline was the only one who wasn’t trained in weapons, but she was a healer. However, her magical healing ability was limited outside the twilight realm.
I could easily picture my guards and the angels locked into a glaring match outside.
The angel guards didn’t take my orders, but they’d pay me respect. They were also restricted from entering my private chamber and the Spring Hall when I bathed.
The rouge powder has worn off, I told Souline. I’d need more rouge for the dreadful celebration today—the King of Angels would announce our betrothal to all the realms.
You never needed rouge before, Souline said with sorrow. Your beauty shone like the starlight in Mysth. You were happy, unworried, and unafraid.
Mysth was like a distant dream now. I fought back the moisture stinging my eyes. I remembered every drop of rain falling on my silvery city and every ray of sunlight spilling through the high forest that shielded the twilight realm.
In Mysth, trees were vast and ancient. Their silver or red leaves reached high into the sky.
Pure streams running across the land were like flowing emeralds.
Magic pulsed deep in the realm, alive and scented like finest wine in the air.
Yet my loyal warriors and lady-in-waiting gave up the magic realm in order to protect me in the angels’ city. We could all die in Atlantis and our bones wouldn’t even be returned.
The emperor sent you to the angels, Souline continued bitterly, so he can keep sipping his choicest wine and playing music every night.
The emperor didn’t have much choice, I sighed. The angel king demanded a marriage alliance. Either that or war.
What if we just go to war?
The chance is they’ll wipe us out.
Mysth is protected by Earth Mother.
Not anymore, I said. Every Mysthian has known that the angels have breached our magical barrier. They flew over our city. Their emissary came to my court to make demands without invitation.
